Using Wi-Fi to Sell More Goods and Services

With its new wireless LAN, MGM Resorts can better engage with customers and sell them additional services and amenities via their mobile devices.

Next up, MGM Resorts plans to extend the wireless network so that guests can use their mobile devices to order room service, make a reservation, ask for a wakeup call or do anything else they may have previously relied on a hotel phone to do.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in making all this happen, says Bollen, has been turning all the data that IT collects into information the marketing department can use.

MGM Resorts in the process of developing a wireless monetization ecosystem that now includes a mobile application through which MGM Resorts can continue marketing its attractions long after a guest has returned home, says Bollen.

MGM Resorts appointed Bollen as chief digital officer in order to have an IT-savvy business executive driving a new business opportunity, while company CIO Rebecca Wanta remains squarely focused on optimizing the back-end office applications that drive the company’s business.

“We’re trying to take the friction out of the experience,” says Bob Friday, CTO for Cisco Wireless. “Accessing the network should require only two clicks on their mobile devices.”

Cormac Conroy, vice president of engineering for Qualcomm, says Wi-Fi networks can now identify the location of a user within a building, creating new opportunities to leverage the existing network infrastructure.

“We can deliver many more cool experiences,” says Conroy. “This is just the beginning of the journey.”